7 Exercises You Can Do At Home To Improve Focus

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Exercises You Can Do At Home to Improve Focus

Health Disclaimer: Please, before deciding to begin any kind of workout regiment consult your physician. I am not a licensed health professional. Mothering the Storm and it’s contents are opinion information writing only. Thank you.

As an Adult with ADHD, I knew I had it long before I could get formally diagnosed.

The signs were all there. I could never find my keys. I’d walk into a room and lose my train of thought, four times daily. I struggled with insomnia and when mornings came could never wake up. I seemed like a typical stressed-out mother. Yet I could see other mothers under the same pressure thriving. I knew I was different.

It didn’t take long for me to realize I had an invisible enemy hanging out in my brain wreaking havoc on my life skills. Of course, the next thing I wanted to do was find ways to treat it because going to the doctor and getting the full treatment at the time was just not in my cards.

So maybe you are in the same shoes I was in. Searching for answers, needing to tame your inner beast of ADHD. I suggest starting with my tips for Natural Treatment in regards to diet. Then come back to this post.

I’ve done some digging lately on exercise that will help improve focus and concentration.

We all know how healthy exercise is for our bodies, but what about our brains?
Well of course exercise is healthy for our brains! It basically gives us a large dose of stimulation, and if there is one thing the ADHD brain craves the most it’s stimulation!
You can watch this video below where Jessica McCabe of How to ADHD explains in fun and excellent graphics how precisely exercise effects ADHD brains.

To maximize efficiency though, why not also challenge our concentration levels?

Concentration requires dopamine.

It’s sort of a chicken and an egg scenario. When you do something that brings you immense pleasure your brain releases dopamine which in turn allows you to focus on the task at hand even more effectively.

So what exercises release dopamine that you can do at home?

Most of them actually. But here are a few that will require some extra effort of focus.

Exercises You Can Do at home to Improve Focus:

1. Archery.

The idea or practice of hitting a marked target might seem like a no-brainer, but in practice, archery requires a lot of brain activity. From aiming to balancing, to releasing. And when you do hit your target, you will feel that rush of feel-good chemicals in your brain and want to replicate the process.

2. Meditation or Yoga.

When it comes to improving focus, meditation is the blanket choice. But why? It’s in the breath. When you meditate or do yoga, your focus must be on your breath then secondary on your body. Focusing on your breath requires a lot of restraint and concentration. And of course, doing these types of exercises will require a lot more stamina than you realize. It’s a challenge, but an excellent and rewarding one.

3. High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

If you haven’t heard of CrossFit, perhaps there is a boot camp nearby that you have heard of. High-Intensity Interval Training combines the best worlds of cardio and strength training and puts them back to back to pack a punch. Not only will HIIT workouts burn the most calories you’ve likely ever burned, but they also require intense focus and concentration to continue moving. And you don’t need a gym to do them (although, there is a MAJOR strength in numbers with exercise). You can find all sorts of HIIT workouts on YouTube that can be modified to do at home, in your garage, basement, or on your staircase. The chemical firing in your brain will be extra intense too. Expect to feel like you are on cloud nine once you push through!

4. Martial Arts

You might be asking, “But how can I learn Martial Arts at home, without a Dojo or Sensei?” Well, you may not get belted or be recognized for the information you learn, but you can get started with YouTube. There are so many in-home martial arts techniques that can improve your concentration and memory. And lot’s can be found online.

5. Basketball

If you don’t have a basketball hoop, any sport where you have to aim to score will work. Could be putting a soccer ball into a soccer net, or even golf. The idea is to require concentration for a reward. Basketball and soccer both are a little fast-paced, but ultimately you have to aim. Just playing catch with a baseball or softball can be good too.

6. Jump rope

Yeah, I know. Only one tiny thing, but it’s proven to be very useful in stimulating brain activity. If you think of how much coordination jumping rope requires, it makes total sense that it can help improve concentration and focus. Plus, it’s a fantastic calorie burner. What’s easier to have in your home for exercises you can do at home to improve focus than a tiny little jump rope?

7. Dancing

I danced for 16 years, four of those years competitively. I speak from experience when I say dancing requires a lot of concentration and focus. Not to mention agility, flexibility, and fluidity. All things that need your brain to put in a lot of work. But the rewards are fantastic. Dancing alone is excellent, but dancing with others and having to choreograph movement is even better. Can’t join a dance crew to get some choreography? Try line dancing. It’s short, memorized steps to a beat that require you to move across the floor and guess where you can find many for free? That’s right, YouTube.

When you’re done here, if you haven’t already read my naturally treating ADHD post might help you in the way of diet and supplements to consider.
Keep in mind, any exercise regiment you can stick with will help your brain. But these exercises are easily accessible to you in home, and therefore might make it a little less stressful to get started.

Regardless of what you are doing, just keep moving your body.